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Start of a Downtown Residentail boom?


weill

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  • 10 months later...
  • 4 months later...

I saw them working on that a couple of weeks ago and got pretty excited when I saw what was underneath. Boy, if that doesn't show how misguided the "urban renewal" of the 50's and 60's was, nothing does. The movement to put freeways, parking lots and all "new" buildings in downtowns "improved" them nearly to their death. It gives some insight into why the older generations bristle when they hear the term urban renewal.

Mind you, I'm not against new buildings (I love the art museum) just against destroying existing architecturally interesting buildings for the sake of making them "new". Fortunately, the last decade has seen a movement toward restoration vs. terrible, disfiguring "rehabilitation" of these buildings. Wonderful to see this project. I also like that it will be affordable apartments that 20 somethings could live in. We really need more of that at this point. Now, lets have some developers get bold and start filling in the crappy parking lots with more modern interesting development. :thumbsup:

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  • 3 months later...

The developers renovating the Grand Piano Building are asking for an $880,000 grant from the city to pay for renovations to the historic terra cotta facade. Council voted 5-2 to approve the funding. The developers must give the city an account of actual costs when the project is completed to get final approval.full story

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The developers renovating the Grand Piano Building are asking for an $880,000 grant from the city to pay for renovations to the historic terra cotta facade. Council voted 5-2 to approve the funding. The developers must give the city an account of actual costs when the project is completed to get final approval.full story
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How does everyone feel that the old Patrick Henry Hotel will fit into the equation? I had thought that it might be renovated into apartments. As far as I know, the building may be completely closed by September. It would be a shame for this grand building to be allowed to deteriorate further. Has anyone got information with regards to its future?

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How does everyone feel that the old Patrick Henry Hotel will fit into the equation? I had thought that it might be renovated into apartments. As far as I know, the building may be completely closed by September. It would be a shame for this grand building to be allowed to deteriorate further. Has anyone got information with regards to its future?
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The current owners have been touting the senior facility and saying renovations were about to begin for at least three years. It looks like that has just been smoke to blow at the city to keep from getting code violations slapped on to them. The city realized this and has gradually shut the place down. If the current owners don't sell. It will just sit there and decay further. It is a real shame because it has potential to be restored to it's former glory and be a real asset. If the owner's financial situation is bad enough, maybe the bank will foreclose and someone will get it for cheap thus being able to make a significant investment in the property. Who knows. I like the idea of mixed use development. Doesn't look like anything will happen soon though.

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  • 1 month later...

From seeing the new condos downtown and all the condos in Richmond, I've concluded that condos are a bit too expensive. I think I'd rather buy a house on Gilmer Ave, just north of the Hotel Roanoke, for less than $50,000 and take my time fixing it up. I could easily walk right to the market in less than 10 minutes. Think about the convenient location of several residential areas adjacent to downtown, and how much more house you can buy for less money. I'm thinking specifically of Gainsboro, the Belmont section of Southeast and inner Old Southwest. From what I've seen of Roanke's downtown condos, it seems that you have to spend at least $200 grand to get a 2 bedroom. No thanks, I'll get a 4 bedroom half a mile away for 1/3 that price.

Riverland seems pretty cheap and convenient as well.

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I just bought a house in SE off of 9th St. for about 100 grand less than the cheapest downtown condo. It's definitely a fixer-upper but structurally it's sound. Downtown isn't too bad of a walk from here. It would be cool for the 9th St business area to turn into a Grandin Rd type district but I don't see that happening anytime soon.

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I just bought a house in SE off of 9th St. for about 100 grand less than the cheapest downtown condo. It's definitely a fixer-upper but structurally it's sound. Downtown isn't too bad of a walk from here. It would be cool for the 9th St business area to turn into a Grandin Rd type district but I don't see that happening anytime soon.
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On the west side of 9th on Highland close to the CVS. Once the leaves fall off the trees I'll have a nice view of the star from the back of the house. I had a little trouble with some neighbor teenagers when I first moved in but I hope I have that problem settled. It's a huge improvement over my last place on Marshall Ave. Moving away from there made me feel like I was being paroled. As soon as I have some extra money I'm putting a fence all the way around which will help out too, hopefully by December. Going to start scraping this weekend so I can start painting the exterior.

I looked at a few other houses in the neighborhood but the others in my price range would have taken another 10-20,000 in repairs to make livable. The place I bought was a former rental unit and the owners did some work to it after putting it on the market so it was in move in condition.

This was the inside of a $59,000 house on Albemarle. I actually liked the house but it was foreclosure listing so it was being sold as-is. Every room was full of stuff, furniture, trash, toys, porn magazines, etc.

house-a.jpg

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On the west side of 9th on Highland close to the CVS. Once the leaves fall off the trees I'll have a nice view of the star from the back of the house. I had a little trouble with some neighbor teenagers when I first moved in but I hope I have that problem settled. It's a huge improvement over my last place on Marshall Ave. Moving away from there made me feel like I was being paroled. As soon as I have some extra money I'm putting a fence all the way around which will help out too, hopefully by December. Going to start scraping this weekend so I can start painting the exterior.

I looked at a few other houses in the neighborhood but the others in my price range would have taken another 10-20,000 in repairs to make livable. The place I bought was a former rental unit and the owners did some work to it after putting it on the market so it was in move in condition.

This was the inside of a $59,000 house on Albemarle. I actually liked the house but it was foreclosure listing so it was being sold as-is. Every room was full of stuff, furniture, trash, toys, porn magazines, etc.

house-a.jpg

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Living in Roanoke does have it's advantages.

My Realtor told me to pretty much rule out any foreclosure properties and leave those to the flippers unless I had 10 thousand or more that I could sink into them, which I don't. My place is in much better shape. I was able to get the previous owners to put in new windows, other than that all the place needs is paint. I'm slowly working on that.

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 4 weeks later...

Between 25 and 40 new condos and townhouses have been approved at 501 Salem Ave. The 50,000 sf building used to house a Merita bakery. The units are to be priced at $250,000 or less.

And the new 353 capicity 5-level city parking garage on Salem should be open by next summer according to the city parking coordinator. Another up and coming projects include Fulton Motor lofts at 400 Salem Ave with 22 units (7 are already under contract).

According to Downtown Roanoke Inc. there were 89 residential units in downtown in early 2006 compared with 204 dwellings last month. According to my estimates, the number should top 300 by the end of 08. May the boom continue :thumbsup:

full story

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  • 4 weeks later...

don't worry weill, if there are enough downtown residents, the grocery stores will come.

This isn't quite downtown proper, its technically Old Southwest, but anything northwest of 5th and Elm is close enough to downtown to be considered downtown.

Work has stopped on Millers Hill (400 block of Day Avenue) apparently until two more houses are sold. Concerned residents think the halt in construction will make the sale of these homes less likely.

story

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don't worry weill, if there are enough downtown residents, the grocery stores will come.

This isn't quite downtown proper, its technically Old Southwest, but anything northwest of 5th and Elm is close enough to downtown to be considered downtown.

Work has stopped on Millers Hill (400 block of Day Avenue) apparently until two more houses are sold. Concerned residents think the halt in construction will make the sale of these homes less likely.

story

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  • 3 weeks later...

The housing authority may be diverting its attention from Day Avenue to the Grand Piano Building, whose owners might still recieve an $880,000 loan, this time channeled through the authority instead of the city's economic development authority.

story

By the way, I agree with you 100% bmedguy.

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